The Corruption Investigation Office Revises Public Relations Guidelines... Eases Public Relations Requirements and Expands Disclosure of Attendance Information

Prosecutor's Office CI. / Image provided by the Prosecutor's Office

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) has relaxed its public announcement standards by expanding the cases in which it can disclose information about ongoing investigations and broadening the scope of individuals whose attendance information can be made public. Additionally, it has established procedures for public announcements related to cases currently undergoing trial.

On the 13th, the CIO announced the implementation of the revised "CIO Case Public Announcement Guidelines" (CIO Directive), which centers on these changes.

The revised guidelines include ▲partial relaxation of the conditions for public announcements before the conclusion of investigations, ▲mandatory reporting of public announcement content to the Public Announcement Review Committee after the fact, ▲new regulations on public announcements during the prosecution maintenance stage, and ▲expansion of the scope and timing for disclosing attendance information.

First, even before the conclusion of an investigation, the guidelines' Article 8, Paragraph 1, which previously allowed exceptions for public announcements only in cases where false reports existed and rapid fact-checking was necessary, has been amended from "cases where false reports exist and rapid fact-checking is necessary" to "cases where false or speculative reports exist or are clearly expected to occur, and rapid fact-checking is necessary." This broadens the exceptions to allow public announcements related to cases even if false reports have not yet been issued.

Additionally, Paragraph 2 of the same article newly stipulates that "in such cases, the content of the public announcement must be submitted to the Public Announcement Review Committee afterward," establishing a post-control procedure to assess the appropriateness of the announcements.

The revised guidelines also newly establish regulations on public announcements during the prosecution maintenance stage in Article 5 (Public Announcement of Cases Under Prosecution), Paragraph 2, allowing public announcements for cases under trial in the following situations: ▲when the relevant content is revealed during the trial (Item 1), ▲when false or speculative reports exist or are clearly expected to occur that infringe on the human rights and honor of suspects, related parties, or CIO officials, necessitating rapid fact-checking (Item 2), and ▲other cases where the public's right to know is guaranteed and the Public Announcement Review Committee has passed a resolution upon media request (Item 3).

Regarding the disclosure of attendance information, the previous guideline Article 18, Paragraph 4, which stated that "in important cases already widely known to the public through media reports, attendance and related situations can be disclosed in advance with the consent of the suspect," has been amended to allow disclosure "with the consent of the related parties in important cases already widely known to the public through media reports."

This expands the subjects eligible for disclosure of attendance information from suspects to include complainants, witnesses, and other related parties, and removes the restriction that disclosure must be made in advance, allowing for disclosure after attendance as well.

Meanwhile, the Public Announcement Review Council, which deliberates on matters related to case public announcements and their scope, has been renamed the Public Announcement Review Committee.

A CIO official explained the background of the guideline revision, stating, "The Case Public Announcement Guidelines were established on July 21 last year to balance the human rights of related parties, the presumption of innocence, the fairness of investigations, and the public's right to know. However, some provisions limited public announcement activities to a passive level, raising concerns about infringing on the fairness of investigations and the public's right to know. Therefore, we revised the relevant provisions to better align with media reporting activities and the realities of CIO public announcements."

The official added, "The CIO will operate the Case Public Announcement Guidelines to ensure the maximum protection of the public's right to know while preventing human rights violations of related parties and potential damage to trust in investigations. We plan to continuously revise and supplement the guidelines as improvements are identified during this process."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.